Sandy still dominating discussion in Kinnelon

Sandy was the focal point of discussion at the Nov. 15 Borough Council meeting.

During the meeting, the mayor and council members again offered kudos to professionals and volunteers for their response to Hurricane Sandy. The governing body had also praised local storm efforts at its Nov. 8 work session.

Mayor Robert Collins thought it would be better to hold off on formally acknowledging employees and volunteers for the hurricane response work until the Dec. 20 Borough Council meeting. Some residents are still dealing with storm-related issues, he said.

Collins said he has spoken to some residents who were without power for a prolonged period of time in the Brook Valley Road-Voorhis Road end of Kinnelon near the Lincoln Park/Towaco border. The residents are customers of Jersey Central Power Light (JCP&L) and expressed an interest in swapping electric companies if possible. Most of Kinnelon is served by Butler Power & Light (BP&L), which received favorable reviews for its response to the hurricane.

Collins said he contacted Butler Borough Administrator James Lampmann about the possibility of residents switching to the municipally-owned utility. Lampmann informed him that changing electric companies would be a very arduous process that would start with filing a petition with the state Board of Public Utilities. Those seeking the change could undertake a lot of work and might not be successful, he said.

Councilman Daniel O’Dougherty said some JCP&L customers in the Voorhis Road area did not get power back until Nov. 10. O’Dougherty credited Collins for making phone calls to apply pressure to JCP&L to restore power. In Kinnelon, there are 73 JCP&L customers.

Councilman Ronald Mondello said a Somerville law firm has filed a class action lawsuit against JCP&L for its lagging response to Sandy.

Dissatisfied utility customers being able to switch service providers is covered in the lawsuit, he said.

Mondello said he is researching the drafting of an ordinance that would impose penalties to utilities for an unacceptable response.

"Under the ordinance, the borough would impose penalties to utilities which put money before customers," he said.

Collins also mentioned that during one of last year’s major storms, BP&L had to replace roughly 30 utility poles. After Sandy blew through, BP&L had to replace 154 poles, which gives the public an idea of the magnitude of the storm and how poles became a somewhat scarce commodity.

Additionally, Collins said because JCP&L’s entire grid was down, it was difficult for BP&L to focus its resources on a particular area. JCP&L feeds BP&L power.